Holy Bible

The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah. Zephaniah 1:1-6 The Word Homilist. I. THE DISTINGUISHING CAPACITY OF MAN, AND THE WONDERFUL CONDESCENSION OF GOD. 1. The distinguishing capacity of man. To receive the word of Jehovah. To receive a word from another is to appreciate its meaning. The word of the Lord comes to every man at times, — comes in visions of the night, comes in the intuitions of conscience, comes in the impressions that nature makes on the heart. 2. The wonderful condescension of God. Even to speak to man. "The Lord hath respect unto the humble." II. THE MORAL CORRUPTION OF MAN AND THE EXCLUSIVE PREROGATIVE OF GOD. 1. The moral corruption of man. There are three great moral evils indicated in these verses.(1) Idolatry. "I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops." The remains of Baal worship, which as yet Josiah was unable utterly to eradicate in remoter places.(2) Backsliding. "Them that had turned back from the Lord." The other evil here is —(3) Indifferentism. "And those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for Him." 2. The exclusive prerogative of God. What is that? To destroy. "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord."(1) No one can really destroy but God. "I kill and I make alive." Annihilation is as far behind the work of the creature as the work of creation.(2) God has a right to destroy human life.(3) His destructive work is as beneficent as His sustaining and creating. Destruction is a principle in all nature: one plant destroys another, one animal destroys another, and there are elements in nature whose work is destruction. From destruction new life and beauty come; destruction keeps the universe alive, fresh, and healthy. ( Homilist. )

Benson Commentary Zephaniah 1:1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. Zephaniah 1:1 . The word that came to Zephaniah — The divine revelation that was made to him. The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, &c. — If these were not prophets, as the Jewish doctors make them, yet it is probable they were persons of some note in Judah. The son of Hizkiah — Although both the letters and points of this name in the Hebrew are the same with those of King Hezekiah, and some therefore have thought that the prophet was his great-grandson; yet that could not be the case, because there was not a sufficient distance of time between King Hezekiah and Josiah, in whose time he flourished, for four descents: nor do we read of Hezekiah’s having any son but Manasseh. In the days of Josiah — The Jews were wont to allege, that their kings obliged them to practise idolatry, and rendered them in other respects corrupt in their manners; but God, by raising up the pious Josiah to be their king, deprived them of that excuse. For so far was he from encouraging them in any branch of impiety or vice, that he used his utmost efforts to effect a thorough reformation among them, although, alas! to little purpose, for they continued to be exceeding corrupt, both in their principles and practices; or, if any change took place among them for the better, it seems to have been but very partial, and of very short duration. Zephaniah 1:2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. Zephaniah 1:2-3 . I will utterly consume all things, &c. — That is, I will make the land of Judea quite desolate. I will consume man and beast, &c. — That is, beasts of the tame and domestic kind. I will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea — Or of the waters, as we are wont to speak, for the Jews called every large collection of waters a sea. The meaning is, I will bring a judicial and extraordinary desolation on the land, which shall extend itself even to the birds and fishes: see notes on Hosea 4:3 ; Jeremiah 4:23-25 . Virgil speaks of pestilential disorders affecting both the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the heaven. “Jam maris immensi prolem, et genus omne natantum Litore in extremo, ceu naufraga corpora, fluctus Proluit.” GEORG. 3. 50:541. “Ipsis est aër avibus non æquus; et illæ Præcipites altâ vitam sub nube relinquunt.” Ib. 50:546. “The scaly nations of the sea profound, Like shipwreck’d carcasses, are driven aground: And mighty phocæ, never seen before, In shallow streams, are stranded on the shore. To birds their native heavens contagious prove, From clouds they fall, and leave their souls above.” DRYDEN. “It is known,” says Bishop Newcome, “that birds are affected by pestilential disorders arising from putrefied carcasses. They fall dead when they alight on bales of cloth infected by the plague.” And St. Jerome upon this place says, that there are sufficient proofs when cities are laid waste, and great slaughter is made of men, that it creates also a scarcity or solitude of beasts, birds, and fishes; and he mentions several places which, in those days, bore witness to this, where he says, there was nothing left but earth and sky, and briers and thick woods. And the stumbling-blocks with the wicked — In the Hebrew it is, The offences with the wicked; that is, the idols with their worshippers. I will cut off man from the land — The land shall be depopulated, either by its inhabitants being slain, or carried away captive. Zephaniah 1:3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. Zephaniah 1:4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; Zephaniah 1:4-6 . I will also stretch out my hand upon Judah — I will manifest my power upon Judah, as I have done upon Israel. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal — The altars, or places of worship, dedicated to Baal, which still remain in this place, namely, Jerusalem; and the name of the Chemarims — Of the idolatrous priests, for so the same word is rendered 2 Kings 23:5 , where see the note; with the priests — That is, I will destroy these together with the priests of the tribe of Levi, who have been joined in the worship of idols, in which, as we learn from Ezekiel 8:11 ; Ezekiel 22:26 , some of them were joined. And them that worship the host of heaven upon the house-tops — They were wont to worship the moon and stars upon the roofs of their houses, which were made flat. And that swear by the Lord, and by Malcham — That join the worship of idols to that of the true God. Malcham is the same with Moloch, to whom many of the people of Judah continued to offer their children, as Jeremiah upbraids them, Jeremiah 7:31 ; Jeremiah 19:5 ; and that, it seems, after the reformation that Josiah had made. Swearing is an act of religious worship, or a solemn invocation of God, as a witness and a judge, Deuteronomy 10:20 ; and therefore the Israelites were expressly forbidden to swear by idols, Joshua 23:7 . And them that are turned back, &c. — That are apostates to idolatry. And those that have not sought the Lord — That live without any sense of religion, and, as it were, without God in the world. Zephaniah 1:5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; Zephaniah 1:6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor inquired for him. Zephaniah 1:7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. Zephaniah 1:7 . Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord — Keep silence in token of an awful reverence toward God. For the day of the Lord is at hand — Now he is coming to execute his judgments upon the land. Humble thyself under his mighty hand, without repining or murmuring at his corrections, which thy sins do so justly deserve. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice — The slaughter of the wicked is called a sacrifice, because it is, in some sense, an atonement to God’s justice. He hath bid his guests — This is an allusion to the custom of those who offered sacrifices, which was to invite their friends to partake of the feasts which accompanied them. So here God is said to invite his guests, that is, the Babylonians, who were to reap the spoils of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, and of the desolation of Judea: or, as some explain it, the guests may mean ravenous birds, wild beasts, and dogs, collected to devour the carcasses of the slain. Zephaniah 1:8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. Zephaniah 1:8-9 . In that day I will punish the princes and the king’s children — In 2 Kings 25:7 ; 2 Kings 25:21 , we read of the fulfilling of both these particulars; the sons of King Zedekiah, and the principal officers of the state, being slain by the order of the king of Babylon. And all such as are clothed with strange apparel — Used for idolatrous purposes: see Deuteronomy 22:11 . There were peculiar vestments belonging to the worship of each idol; hence the command of Jehu, 2 Kings 10:22 , Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. The text may likewise be explained of such men as wore women’s apparel, and such women as wore that of men, which was contrary to an express law, Deuteronomy 22:5 , and was a rite observed in the worship of some idols. In the same day will I punish all those that leap on the threshold — Or rather, over the threshold. The expression is thought to denote some idolatrous rite, like that which was practised in the temple of Dagon, where the priests did not tread upon the threshold, 1 Samuel 5:5 . Thus the Chaldee paraphrast interprets it of those who walked after the laws or rites of the Philistines. Capellus, however, understands it of those who invaded the house of their neighbours, joyfully bounding on the threshold. “This sense is favoured by what follows.” — Newcome. Which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit — Who enter into other men’s houses, and take away their goods by fraud or violence, and carry them to the houses of their masters. The iniquitous officers of the kings and princes seem to be here intended, who employed all the arts of deceit and oppression, as well as of open violence, to fill their master’s coffers. Zephaniah 1:9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. Zephaniah 1:10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. Zephaniah 1:10-11 . In that day there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish- gate — Mentioned Nehemiah 3:3 . It was opposite to Joppa, according to Jerome, and at the entering of the city from that quarter. The sundry expressions of this verse are intended to describe the cries and shrieks that should arise from all parts of the city, upon the taking of it by the Babylonians. The great crashing from the hills might be intended to signify the noise that should be heard from the palace and temple, which were situated on the mountains, Zion and Moriah. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh — The inhabitants of some particular part in or near Jerusalem. The Chaldee interprets it of the inhabitants near the brook Cedron. Bishop Newcome renders the clause, Howl ye inhabitants of the lower city, understanding it of the valley in Jerusalem, which divided the upper from the lower city, “This,” says he, “is agreeable to the etymology of the word, which signifies a hollow place, a mortar.” In this sense the word is understood by Buxtorf. For all the merchant people are cut down — All they who used to traffic with you shall be destroyed. All they that bear silver are cut off — All the money-changers: the rich merchants in general, or the money-changers in particular, may be meant. Zephaniah 1:11 Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off. Zephaniah 1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil. Zephaniah 1:12-13 . At that time, I will search Jerusalem with candles — I will deliver up Jerusalem into the hands of the Chaldeans, who shall let no corner of it escape them, but shall diligently search the houses, even with lights or torches, that they may plunder them of every thing. And punish the men that are settled on their lees — Who live securely in ease and plenty: see notes on Jeremiah 48:11 , and Amos 6:1 . That say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, &c. — Who have not God in all their thoughts, or imagine that he doth not concern himself with the affairs of the world, and that neither good nor evil is brought to pass by his providence. The prophet especially describes those men, who, trusting in their riches, paid very little regard to the threats of the prophets, and seemed entirely safe in their own eyes, while they kept their beloved treasures. Therefore their goods shall become a booty, &c. — The enemy shall plunder their goods, and turn them out of their houses and possessions, so that they shall not inherit the houses they have built, nor drink the wine of the vineyards which they have planted. Zephaniah 1:13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. Zephaniah 1:14-16 . The great day of the Lord is near — The time of God’s executing his terrible judgments is nigh at hand. Even the voice, &c. — The word even is not in the Hebrew. This latter part of the sentence may, it seems, be better rendered thus: The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, and it vehemently resoundeth there. Or, Then the mighty man crieth out. The general sense is, that great noise, or distraction, should attend the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. That day is a day of wrath, &c. — That time will be a time of executing wrath. A day of wasteness and desolation — Hebrew, ???? ??????? , of tumult and devastation. A day of darkness and gloominess, &c. — Of perplexity, terror, and dismay. A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities — A day of attacking and taking fortified cities and strong holds, the attacks on which were used to be made by the sound of trumpets; and probably trumpets sounded all the time of the attack, as also when an entrance was gained into them. Zephaniah 1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, Zephaniah 1:16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. Zephaniah 1:17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Zephaniah 1:17-18 . I will bring distress, &c., that they shall walk as blind men — I will bring them into such straits that they shall no more know whither to turn themselves, or which way to go for safety, than if they were blind: compare Deuteronomy 28:29 , and Isaiah 59:10 ; in both which places the image is heightened by the circumstance of groping, or stumbling, like the blind, even at noon-day. And their blood shall be poured out as dust — That is, as if it were of no value at all; and their flesh as dung — The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be slain in the streets of the city, and their carcasses left there to rot and putrefy. Neither their silver nor gold shall deliver them — This is spoken of the merchants, and other rich citizens. The whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy — God’s vengeance is frequently compared to fire: see Nahum 1:6 . This, it is here threatened, should consume the land and its inhabitants for their heinous offences, and chiefly for their idolatry; because that sin gives that honour which is only due to the one living and true God, to images, or fictitious gods, and therefore, in a peculiar manner, intrenches on God’s glory; is so contrary in its nature to the truth and fitness of things, and to all that is reasonable, just, and proper; has so great a tendency to corrupt and debase men’s minds, and the practice of it is so unfit in every point of view, that the Scriptures, to give men some idea how odious it is, and what a great provocation to the Most High, represent him as jealous of having that honour which is only due to him, given to another. Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Zephaniah 1:1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. THE PROPHET AND THE REFORMERS Zephaniah 1:1-18 - Zephaniah 2:3 TOWARDS the year 625, when King Josiah had passed out of his minority, and was making his first efforts at religious reform, prophecy, long slumbering, woke again in Israel. Like the king himself, its first heralds were men in their early youth. In 627 Jeremiah calls himself but a boy, and Zephaniah can hardly have been out of his teens. For the sudden outbreak of these young lives there must have been a large reservoir of patience and hope gathered in the generation behind them. So Scripture itself testifies. To Jeremiah it was said: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I consecrated thee." { Jeremiah 1:5 } In an age when names were bestowed only because of their significance, both prophets bore that of Jehovah in their own. So did Jeremiah’s father, who was of the priests of Anathoth. Zephaniah’s "forbears" are given for four generations, and with one exception they also are called after Jehovah: "The Word of Jehovah which came to Sephanyah, son of Kushi, son of Gedhalyah, son of Amaryah, son of Hizkiyah, in the days of Joshiyahu, Amon’s son, king of Judah." Zephaniah’s great-great-grandfather Hezekiah was in all probability the king. His father’s name Kushi, or Ethiop, is curious. If we are right, that Zephaniah was a young man towards 625, then Kushi must have been born towards 663, about the time of the conflicts between Assyria and Egypt, and it is possible that, as Manasseh and the predominant party in Judah so closely hung upon and imitated Assyria, the adherents of Jehovah put their hope in Egypt, whereof, it may be, this name Kushi is a token. The name Zephaniah itself, meaning "Jehovah hath hidden," suggests the prophet’s birth in the "killing-time" of Manasseh. There was at least one other contemporary of the same name-a priest executed by Nebuchadrezzar. Of the adherents of Jehovah, then, and probably of royal descent, Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem. We descry him against her, almost a clearly as we descry Isaiah. In the glare and smoke of the conflagration which his vision sweeps across the world, only her features stand out definite and particular: the flat roofs with men and women bowing in the twilight to the host of heaven, the crowds of priests, the nobles and their foreign fashions: the Fishgate, the New or Second Town, where the rich lived, the heights to which building had at last spread, and between them the hollow mortar, with its markets, Phoenician merchants, and money-dealers. In the first few verses of Zephaniah we see almost as much of Jerusalem as in the whole book either of Isaiah or Jeremiah. For so young a man the vision of Zephaniah may seem strangely dark and final. Yet not otherwise was Isaiah’s inaugural vision, and as a rule it is the young and not the old whose indignation is ardent and unsparing. Zephaniah carries this temper to the extreme. There is no great hope in his book, hardly any tenderness, and never a glimpse of beauty. A townsman, Zephaniah has no eye for nature; not only is no fair prospect described by him, he has not even a single metaphor drawn from nature’s loveliness or peace. He is pitilessly true to his great keynotes: "I will sweep, sweep from the face of the ground; He will burn," burn up everything. No hotter book lies in all the Old Testament. Neither dew nor grass nor tree nor any blossom lives in it, but it is everywhere fire, smoke, and darkness, drifting chaff, ruins, nettles, salt-pits, and owls and ravens looking from the windows of desolate palaces. Nor does Zephaniah foretell the restoration of nature in the end of the days. There is no prospect of a redeemed and fruitful land, but only of a group of battered and hardly saved characters: a few meek and righteous are hidden from the fire and creep forth when it is over. Israel is left "a poor and humble folk." No prophet is more true to the doctrine of the remnant, or more resolutely refuses to modify it. Perhaps he died young. The full truth, however, is that Zephaniah, though he found his material in the events of his own day, tears himself loose from history altogether. To the earlier prophets the Day of the Lord, the crisis of the world, is a definite point in history: full of terrible, Divine events, yet "natural" ones - battle, siege, famine, massacre, and captivity. After it history is still to flow on, common days come back and Israel pursue their way as a nation. But to Zephaniah the Day of the Lord begins to assume what we call the "supernatural." The grim colors are still woven of war and siege, but mixed with vague and solemn terrors from another sphere, by which history appears to be swallowed up, and it is only with an effort that the prophet thinks of a rally of Israel beyond. In short, with Zephaniah the Day of the Lord tends to become the Last Day. His book is the first tinging of prophecy with apocalypse: that is the moment which it supplies in the history of Israel’s religion. And, therefore, it was with a true instinct that the great Christian singer of the Last Day took from Zephaniah his keynote. The " Dies Irae, Dies Illa " of Thomas of Celano is but the Vulgate translation of Zephaniah’s "A day of wrath is that day." Nevertheless, though the first of apocalyptic writers, Zephaniah does not allow himself the license of apocalypse. As he refuses to imagine great glory for the righteous, so he does not dwell on the terrors of the wicked. He is sober and restrained, a matter-of-fact man, yet with power of imagination, who, amidst the vague horrors he summons, delights in giving a sharp realistic impression. The Day of the Lord, he says, what is it? "A strong man-there!-crying bitterly." It is to the fierce ardor, and to the elemental interests of the book, that we owe the absence of two features of prophecy which are so constant in the prophets of the eighth century. Firstly, Zephaniah betrays no interest in the practical reforms which (if we are right about the date) the young king, his contemporary, had already started. There was a party of reform, the party had a program, the program was drawn from the main principles of prophecy and was designed to put these into practice. And Zephaniah was a prophet and ignored them. This forms the dramatic interest of his book. Here was a man of the same faith which kings, priests, and statesmen were trying to realize in public life, in the assured hope-as is plain from the temper of Deuteronomy-that the nation as a whole would be reformed and become a very great nation, righteous and victorious. All this he ignored, and gave his own vision of the future: Israel is a brand plucked from the burning; a very few meek and righteous are saved from the conflagration of a whole world. Why? Because for Zephaniah the elements were loose, and when the elements were loose what was the use of talking about reforms? The Scythians were sweeping down upon Palestine, with enough of God’s wrath in them to destroy a people still so full of idolatry as Israel was; and if not the Scythians, then some other power in that dark, rumbling North which had ever been so full of doom. Let Josiah try to reform Israel, but it was neither Josiah’s nor Israel’s day that was falling. It was the Day of the Lord, and when He came it was neither to reform nor to build up Israel, but to make visitation and to punish in His wrath for the unbelief and wickedness of which the nation was still full. An analogy to this dramatic opposition between prophet and reformer may be found in our own century. At its crisis, in 1848, there were many righteous men rich in hope and energy. The political institutions of Europe were being rebuilt. In our own land there were great measures for the relief of laboring children and women, the organization of labor, and the just distribution of wealth. But Carlyle that year held apart from them all, and, though a personal friend of many of the reformers, counted their work hopeless: society was too corrupt, the rudest forces were loose, "Niagara" was near. Carlyle was proved wrong and the reformers right, but in the analogous situation of Israel the reformers were wrong and the prophet right. Josiah’s hope and daring were overthrown at Megiddo, and, though the Scythians passed away, Zephaniah’s conviction of the sin and doom of Israel was fulfilled, not forty years later, in the fall of Jerusalem and the great Exile. Again, to the same elemental interests, as we may call them, is due the absence from Zephaniah’s pages of all the social and individual studies which form the charm of other prophets. With one exception, there is no analysis of character, no portrait, no satire. But the exception is worth dwelling upon: it describes the temper equally abhorred by both prophet and reformer-that of the indifferent and stagnant man. Here we have a subtle and memorable picture of character, which is not without its warnings for our own time. Zephaniah heard God say: "And it shall be at that time that I will search out Jerusalem with lights, and I will make visitation upon the men who are become stagnant upon their lees, who say in their hearts, Jehovah doeth no good and doeth no evil." The metaphor is clear. New wine was left upon its lees only long enough to fix its color and body. If not then drawn off it grew thick and syrupy-sweeter indeed than the strained wine, and to the taste of some more pleasant, but feeble and ready to decay. "To settle upon one’s lees" became a proverb for sloth, indifference, and the muddy mind. "Moab hath been at ease from his youth and hath settled upon his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; therefore his taste stands in him and his scent is not changed." { Jeremiah 48:11 } The characters stigmatized by Zephaniah are also obvious. They were a precipitate from the ferment of fifteen years back. Through the cruel days of Manasseh and Amon hope had been stirred and strained, emptied from vessel to vessel, and so had sprung, sparkling and keen, into the new days of Josiah. But no miracle came, only ten years of waiting for the king’s majority and five more of small, tentative reforms. Nothing Divine happened. They were but the ambiguous successes of a small party who had secured the king for their principles. The court was still full of foreign fashions, and idolatry was rank upon the housetops. Of course disappointment ensued-disappointment and listlessness. The new security of life became a temptation; persecution ceased, and religious men lived again at ease. So numbers of eager and sparkling souls, who had been in the front of the movement, fell away into a selfish and idle obscurity. The prophet hears God say, "I must search Jerusalem with lights" in order to find them. They had "fallen from the van and the freemen"; they had "sunk to the rear and the slaves," where they wallowed in the excuse that "Jehovah" Himself "would do nothing-neither good," therefore it is useless to attempt reform like Josiah and his party, "nor evil," therefore Zephaniah’s prophecy of destruction is also vain. Exactly the same temper was encountered by Mazzini in the second stage of his career. Many of those who with him had eagerly dreamt of a free Italy fell away when the first revolt failed-fell away not merely into weariness and fear, but, as he emphasizes, into the very two tempers which are described by Zephaniah, skepticism and self-indulgence. All this starts questions for ourselves. Here is evidently the same public temper, which at all periods provokes alike the despair of the reformer and the indignation of the prophet: the criminal apathy of the well-to-do classes sunk in ease and religious indifference. We have today the same mass of obscure, nameless persons, who oppose their almost unconquerable inertia to every movement of reform, and are the drag upon all vital and progressive religion. The great causes of God and Humanity are not defeated by the hot assaults of the Devil, but by the slow, crushing, glacier-like masses of thousands and thousands of indifferent nobodies. God’s causes are never destroyed by being blown up, but by being sat upon. It is not the violent and anarchical whom we have to fear in the war for human progress, but the slow, the staid, the respectable. And the danger of these does not lie in their stupidity. Notwithstanding all their religious profession, it lies in their real skepticism. Respectability may be the precipitate of unbelief. Nay, it is that, however religious its mask, wherever it is mere comfort, decorousness, and conventionality; where, though it would abhor articulately confessing that God does nothing, it virtually means so- says so (as Zephaniah puts it) in its heart, by refusing to share manifest opportunities of serving Him, and covers its sloth and its fear by sneering that God is not with the great crusades of freedom and purity to which it is summoned. In these ways, respectability is the precipitate which unbelief naturally forms in the selfish ease and stillness of so much of our middle-class life. And that is what makes mere respectability so dangerous. Like the unshaken, unstrained wine to which the prophet compares its obscure and muddy comfort, it tends to decay. To some extent our respectable classes are just the dregs and lees of our national life; like all dregs, they are subject to corruption. A great sermon could be preached on the putrescence of respectability-how the ignoble comfort of our respectable classes and their indifference to holy causes lead to sensuality, and poison the very institutions of the home and the family, on which they pride themselves. A large amount of the licentiousness of the present day is not that of outlaw and disordered lives, but is bred from the settled ease and indifference of many of our middle-class families. It is perhaps the chief part of the sin of the obscure units, which form these great masses of indifference, that they think they escape notice and cover their individual responsibility. At all times many have sought obscurity, not because they are humble, but because they are slothful, cowardly, or indifferent. Obviously it is this temper which is met by the words, "I will search out Jerusalem with lights." None of us shall escape because we have said, "I will go with the crowd," or "I am a common man and have no right to thrust myself forward." We shall be followed and judged, each of us for his or her personal attitude to the great movements of our time. These things are not too high for us: they are our duty; and we cannot escape our duty by slinking into the shadow. For all this wickedness and indifference Zephaniah sees prepared the Day of the Lord-near, hastening, and very terrible. It sweeps at first in vague desolation and ruin of all things, but then takes the outlines of a solemn slaughter-feast for which Jehovah has consecrated the guests, the dim unnamed armies from the north. Judah shall be invaded, and they that are at ease, who say "Jehovah does nothing" shall be unsettled and routed. One vivid trait comes in like a screech upon the hearts of a people unaccustomed for years to war. "Hark, Jehovah’s Day!" cries the prophet. "A strong man-there!-crying bitterly." From this flash upon the concrete he returns to a great vague terror, in which earthly armies merge in heavenly; battle, siege, storm, and darkness are mingled, and destruction is spread abroad upon the whole earth. The first shades of Apocalypse are upon us. We may now take the full text of this strong and significant prophecy. We have already given the title. Textual emendations and other points are explained in footnotes. "I will sweep, sweep away everything from the face of the ground oracle of Jehovah-sweep man and beast, sweep the fowl of the heaven and the fish of the sea, and I will bring to ruin the wicked and cut off the men of wickedness from the ground- oracle of Jehovah. And I will stretch forth My hand upon Judah; and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will cut off from this place the remnant of the Baal, the names of the priestlings with the priests, and them who upon the housetops bow themselves to the host of heaven, and them who swear by their Melech, and them who have turned from following Jehovah, and who do not seek Jehovah nor have inquired of Him." "Silence for the Lord Jehovah! For near is Jehovah’s Day. Jehovah has prepared a slaughter, He has consecrated His guests." "And it shall be in Jehovah’s day of slaughter that I will make visitation upon the princes and the house of the king, and upon all who array themselves in foreign raiment; and I will make visitation upon all who leap over the threshold on that day, who fill their lord’s house full of violence and fraud. "And on that day oracle of Jehovah-there shall be a noise of crying from the Fishgate, and wailing from the Mishneh, and great havoc on the Heights. Howl, O dwellers in the Mortar, for undone are all the merchant folk, cut off are all the money-dealers. "And in that time it shall be, that I will search Jerusalem with lanterns, and make visitation upon the men who are become stagnant upon their lees, who in their hearts say, Jehovah doeth no good and doeth no evil. Their substance shall be for spoil, and their houses for wasting "Near is the great Day of Jehovah, near and very speedy. Hark, the Day of Jehovah! A strong man-there!-crying bitterly A Day of wrath is that Day! Day of siege and blockade, day of stress and distress, day of darkness and murk, day of cloud and heavy mist, day of the war-horn and battle-roar, up against the fenced cities and against the highest turrets! And I will beleaguer men, and they shall walk like the blind, for they have sinned against Jehovah; and poured out shall their blood be like dust, and the flesh of them like dung. Even their silver, even their gold shall "not avail to save them in the day of Jehovah’s wrath, and in the fire of His zeal shall all the earth be devoured, for destruction, yea, sudden collapse shall He make of all the, inhabitants of the earth." Upon this vision of absolute doom there follows a qualification for the few meek and righteous. They may be hidden on the day of the Lord’s anger; but even for them escape is only a possibility Note the absence of all mention of the Divine mercy as the cause of deliverance. Zephaniah has no gospel of that kind. The conditions of escape are sternly ethical-meekness, the doing of justice and righteousness. So austere is our prophet. "O people unabashed! before that ye become as the drifting chaff before the anger of Jehovah come upon you, before there come upon you the day of Jehovah’s wrath; seek Jehovah, all ye meek of the land who do His ordinance, seek righteousness, seek meekness, peradventure ye may hide yourselves in the day of Jehovah’s wrath." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.